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Author Topic: What's it doing when it starts? (SOLVED)  (Read 1340 times)

salvadordalisdad

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What's it doing when it starts? (SOLVED)
« on: August 09, 2024, 10:43:51 am »

Hi Guys,

Can I ask for an official answer to the following Q please?

What does MC32 need the internet for when it starts up?

Can you give me a definitive list of target IP Addresses and TCP/UDP ports for my firewall policy so that it starts without the massive pause?
I've packet captured endlessly & I found & allowed all the jriver hosts.
But there are some coudflare hosts it's trying to talk to - please advise.

I have a shared library, but it's on a stupid "lookup code" - is there a way to tell it the library host & stop it messing about & taking 30 seconds to start, please?

Can I tell it NOT TO try to connect to an old IP ADdress my ISP gave me 3 years ago please?

I have a shared library on the same LAN, it's the next host on teh network.

Thanks in advance.
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JimH

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Re: What's it doing when it starts?
« Reply #1 on: August 09, 2024, 11:02:21 am »

Version?

OS?

That sounds like a DNS failure.

Taming Windows Defender:  https://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php/topic,114101.0.html
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Awesome Donkey

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Re: What's it doing when it starts?
« Reply #2 on: August 09, 2024, 02:39:01 pm »

What does MC32 need the internet for when it starts up?

Checking for updates, checking for updated plugins, if you have Media Network enabled with a access key it pings the server so it can work correctly, etc. I don't believe there's a list anywhere of addresses unfortunately, but if you use Media Network with an access key it uses port 52199 for HTTP and 52200 with SSL/HTTPS for Media Network enabled.
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Windows 11 24H2 Update 64-bit + Ubuntu 24.10 Oracular Oriole 64-bit | Windows 11 24H2 Update 64-bit (Intel N305 Fanless NUC 16GB RAM/500GB M.2 NVMe SSD)
JRiver Media Center 33 (Windows + Linux) | iFi ZEN DAC 3 | JBL 306P MkII Studio Monitors | Audio-Technica ATH-M50x Headphones

JimH

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Re: What's it doing when it starts?
« Reply #3 on: August 09, 2024, 03:40:17 pm »

Check Options > File Locations to make sure you don't have it set to look for a drive that isn't there.
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JimH

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Re: What's it doing when it starts?
« Reply #4 on: August 09, 2024, 05:04:16 pm »

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salvadordalisdad

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Re: What's it doing when it starts?
« Reply #5 on: August 09, 2024, 06:47:33 pm »

Checking for updates, checking for updated plugins, if you have Media Network enabled with a access key it pings the server so it can work correctly, etc. I don't believe there's a list anywhere of addresses unfortunately, but if you use Media Network with an access key it uses port 52199 for HTTP and 52200 with SSL/HTTPS for Media Network enabled.


That's very helpful, thanks, exactly the crumbs I needed to continue the search.
Re-examinng the packet captures, I have found that target port - I think that definitely looks like the entire hold up.
It's trying to connect 5 times & seems to take 20-30 seconds, just retrying SYN (which will never get a synack reply).
It's an annoying thing - it's trying to connect to my old ISP provided IP address - like it's expecting to get some useful info (presumably expectation of of UPNP control of a router to provide a hole to get to the library?)
That's not a very good process, so please can I make a request to stop it - or at least add an option somewhere to disable it?
I absolutely never have allowed any such access & I can't believe people would do that these days.

I'm guessing that it was registered the day I enabled "remote library access", as that would have been the public IP at that moment.
Of course - most people have dynamic IP these days - so why would the code do that when it will be a different IP tomorrow?
It's therefore ALWAYS going to fail the day after it's enabled - and cause a very long painful pause while the software fails to connect to a service which a) was never available in the first place & b) even if it was there on day-1 won't be there on day-2
I can understand it's not a high priority for your roadmap, you have hundreds of other things which are commercially more important.

So in summary, we seem to have found a possible "cause of the pause" & i cannot fix it. (not without some massively bad fudging which will only bite me later after I forgot I put it there!)
So can we have a small option to change it in future please?
Perhaps an option might be to "automatic" or "manual" config for remote library ?
"Manual" would just be an ip-addr or dns name of the target library server?
Auto - wouldn't change anything.
That'd be great.

I pay to update to the latest version every 3 or 4 versions, but this would be worth it to me to upgrade immediately.

Thanks, I will have to put up with the pause until it's an optional thing, then I'll upgrade.
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salvadordalisdad

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Re: What's it doing when it starts?
« Reply #6 on: August 09, 2024, 06:49:40 pm »

Servers we run.

https://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php/topic,138838.0.html


Hiya

That's really helpful - any chance someone could add DNS hostnames to that list so I can be 100% certain I'm not blocking anything useful/functional/important please?
I can understand if the answer is "no" for security reasons. But I'd like an answer, please please.

Thanks
;-)
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Awesome Donkey

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Re: What's it doing when it starts?
« Reply #7 on: August 09, 2024, 06:54:53 pm »

It's an annoying thing - it's trying to connect to my old ISP provided IP address - like it's expecting to get some useful info (presumably expectation of of UPNP control of a router to provide a hole to get to the library?)

That likely means the ping to the server to update the IP address used via access key is probably being blocked so it's not updating. If you're using everything locally within the network you can skip access keys and use direct local IP addresses instead (depending on the remote you may need to add the port, e.g. :52199 at the end). If going this route I'd recommend avoiding using DHCP for devices and either assign them a IP at the router via address reservation (linking to its MAC address which goes without saying that it likely wouldn't be a good idea to enable random MAC addresses on those devices) or assigning the IP address manually on each device you want to use on your network. This is what I personally do (address reservation method), and I switch to access key when outside the network or something like that.

You can go into MC's Options > Media Network and right click on Access Key and it should give you several options, including an option to test the connection.
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I don't work for JRiver... I help keep the forums safe from "male enhancements" and other sources of sketchy pharmaceuticals.

Windows 11 24H2 Update 64-bit + Ubuntu 24.10 Oracular Oriole 64-bit | Windows 11 24H2 Update 64-bit (Intel N305 Fanless NUC 16GB RAM/500GB M.2 NVMe SSD)
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JimH

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Re: What's it doing when it starts?
« Reply #8 on: August 09, 2024, 09:50:26 pm »

Read about the Access Key on the wiki.  It updates the IP address automatically if the address changes.

Your problem could be that you're blocking the update.
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salvadordalisdad

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Re: What's it doing when it starts?
« Reply #9 on: August 16, 2024, 05:13:50 am »

That likely means the ping to the server to update the IP address used via access key is probably being blocked so it's not updating. If you're using everything locally within the network you can skip access keys and use direct local IP addresses instead (depending on the remote you may need to add the port, e.g. :52199 at the end). If going this route I'd recommend avoiding using DHCP for devices and either assign them a IP at the router via address reservation (linking to its MAC address which goes without saying that it likely wouldn't be a good idea to enable random MAC addresses on those devices) or assigning the IP address manually on each device you want to use on your network. This is what I personally do (address reservation method), and I switch to access key when outside the network or something like that.

You can go into MC's Options > Media Network and right click on Access Key and it should give you several options, including an option to test the connection.



...and that's the answer I was hoping for!
10/10 perfect answer, thanks.
Yup - that did the trick, no more remote lookups & needless delays, marvellous, thank you.

Of course I was lazy & looked it up on my library server, which then crashed & now has a different code, but that's not important now, so happy days.

Many thanks,
(and you're abs correct, they're using static predictable IP Addresses...)

All good. Will adjust title to "solved"
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